Lawyer: Tamerlan Tsarnaev's in-laws answer questions from grand jury

From Susan Candiotti, CNN

Updated 12:25 PM ET, Fri September 13, 2013

Evidence photos from Boston bombings15 photos

Evidence photos from Boston bombings – A police forensics team examines a boat April 22, 2013, in Watertown, Massachusetts, where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was discovered several days earlier and taken into custody.

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Massachusetts State Police released thermal images of Tsarnaev hiding in the boat on April 19, 2013. They were taken by an infrared device on a helicopter. The first image was taken at 7:19 p.m., less than 20 minutes after a homeowner told police there was a bloodied person in his boat.

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This image from 7:22 p.m. shows a white heat signature large enough to be a person.

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A robotic arm tears away the cover on the boat at 7:36 p.m.

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The heat signature clearly shows the suspect's feet and the rest of his body behind the boat console at 8:01 p.m., minutes before he surrendered.

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Boston Marathon bomb scene pictures, taken by investigators, show the remains of an explosive device.

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A federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a lid to a pressure cooker -- thought to have been used in the bombings -- had been found on a roof of a building near the scene.

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One bomb was housed in a pressure cooker hidden inside a backpack, the FBI said in a joint intelligence bulletin.

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The device also had fragments that may have included nails, BBs and ball bearings, the FBI said.

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The recovered parts include part of a circuit board, which might have been used to detonate a device.

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A law enforcement official said the bombs were probably detonated by timers. But the FBI said details of the detonating system were unknown.

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Scraps of at least one pressure cooker, nails and nylon bags were sent to the FBI's national laboratory in Virginia, where technicians will try to reconstruct the devices, the agent leading the investigation said.

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The U.S. government has warned federal agencies in the past that terrorists could turn pressure cookers into bombs by packing them with explosives and shrapnel and detonating them with blasting caps.

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The pieces suggest each of the devices was 6 liters (about 1.6 gallons) in volume, a Boston law enforcement source said.

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"It has the hallmarks of both domestic and international (attacks), and you can see either side of that," former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes told CNN.

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Story highlights

The in-laws of the late Tamerlan Tsarnaev appear before a federal grand jury in Boston

A family lawyer says they answered questions but does not elaborate

Katherine Russell was married to Tsarnaev for 3 years before the spring attack

Her lawyers have said she, her family were shocked to hear Tsarnaev tied to the blasts

The in-laws of late Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev appeared Thursday before a federal grand jury in Boston, a family attorney said.

Joshua Dratel -- the lawyer representing Katherine Russell, who was married to Tsarnaev before he died following a police shootout days after the deadly April bombing -- said that the widow's parents answered questions for four hours Thursday from the grand jury.

Christina Sterling, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for Massachusetts, said only that she "cannot confirm or deny the existence of a grand jury."

Four people have been charged in connection with the Boston attack, including Russell's brother-in-law, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is suspected of carrying out the attack along with his brother, Tamerlan, 26.

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Neither Katherine Russell nor her parents have been charged, and investigators haven't said what they believe she knew about the twin April 15 blasts that killed three people and injured more than 260 others.

A lawyer representing Russell, Amato DeLuca, said eight days after the bombing that Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow was "doing everything she can to assist with the investigation." DeLuca said that Russell, then 24, knew nothing about any plan to plant explosives near the Boston Marathon's finish line and that reports her husband was involved came as an "absolute shock" to her and her family.

A 2007 graduate of North Kingstown High School in Rhode Island, she moved that year to Boston -- where she met Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a nightclub -- and enrolled at Suffolk University.

Russell dropped out of college her freshman year. Eventually, she converted to Islam before the couple married in a Massachusetts mosque in June 2010.

Together, she and her husband had a daughter, who was 3 at the time of the Boston bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev reportedly stayed home to care for the girl while Russell worked long hours as a home health aide.